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History Was Stranger is a documentary history podcast about the people, scandals, rivalries, disasters, obsessions, and extraordinary decisions that made the past far stranger than the version we usually learn...
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History Was Stranger is a documentary history podcast about the people, scandals, rivalries, disasters, obsessions, and extraordinary decisions that made the past far stranger than the version we usually learn in school.
Each episode takes one remarkable true story from history and looks beyond the familiar legend. From controversial queens and eccentric kings to forgotten rulers, disastrous marriages, bizarre customs, political betrayals, and lives almost erased from the record, History Was Stranger explores what really happened, what later generations exaggerated, and what the surviving evidence can still tell us.
Because history was never as neat, dignified, or predictable as it looks in a textbook.
show less
Each episode takes one remarkable true story from history and looks beyond the familiar legend. From controversial queens and eccentric kings to forgotten rulers, disastrous marriages, bizarre customs, political betrayals, and lives almost erased from the record, History Was Stranger explores what really happened, what later generations exaggerated, and what the surviving evidence can still tell us.
Because history was never as neat, dignified, or predictable as it looks in a textbook.
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Episodes
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Transcribed
3 SEP 2026 · When Napoleon shattered the Spanish monarchy, Carlota Joaquina found herself in Brazil while her Bourbon relatives in Spain were trapped inside a dynastic crisis.
She saw an extraordinary opening. If the legitimate Spanish king could not rule, perhaps she could rule in his place. This episode follows the strange political movement known as Carlotism, Carlota's return to Portugal, her refusal to accept constitutional limits, and the final struggle between two branches of her own family for the future of two kingdoms.
Transcribed
3 SEP 2026 · Carlota Joaquina entered the Portuguese royal court as a child bride and spent much of her life being mocked for her appearance, her Spanish birth, and a personality that refused to fit the expectations placed on royal women.
But behind the insults was a far more consequential story. Long before she became Queen of Portugal, Carlota was already fighting her husband for political power. This episode follows the strange marriage, hostile court, vicious reputation, and failed conspiracy that turned one princess into one of the most controversial royal women of her age.
History Was Stranger is a documentary history podcast about the people, scandals, rivalries, disasters, obsessions, and extraordinary decisions that made the past far stranger than the version we usually learn...
show more
History Was Stranger is a documentary history podcast about the people, scandals, rivalries, disasters, obsessions, and extraordinary decisions that made the past far stranger than the version we usually learn in school.
Each episode takes one remarkable true story from history and looks beyond the familiar legend. From controversial queens and eccentric kings to forgotten rulers, disastrous marriages, bizarre customs, political betrayals, and lives almost erased from the record, History Was Stranger explores what really happened, what later generations exaggerated, and what the surviving evidence can still tell us.
Because history was never as neat, dignified, or predictable as it looks in a textbook.
show less
Each episode takes one remarkable true story from history and looks beyond the familiar legend. From controversial queens and eccentric kings to forgotten rulers, disastrous marriages, bizarre customs, political betrayals, and lives almost erased from the record, History Was Stranger explores what really happened, what later generations exaggerated, and what the surviving evidence can still tell us.
Because history was never as neat, dignified, or predictable as it looks in a textbook.
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